"When the Giants Come to Town..." is my blog intended to chronicle my thoughts on San Francisco Giants baseball. My special interest is in prospects and the farm system, but of course, will comment on all aspects of the San Francisco Giants. I will also comment on baseball in general, particularly from a fantasy baseball perspective. I hope you will find the site informative, and invite you to join in the discussion.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Pablo Sandoval hit a 2 run HR in the top of the 9'th inning to turn a potential 1-0 loss into a win. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, SB(4). BA= .275. Pagan bounced back from a 0 for 5 night to get two hits including the one that started the winning rally.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4, HR(4). BA= .333. Last night it looked like Pablo might be hitting the DL for awile. Tonight, he was the hero. The HR was not a cheapie either. It would have been out of any park. Well, maybe not AT&T because of the location, but any other park.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(10). ERA= 2.13. It looked like maybe Romo has added a cut fastball to his arsenal. He had no trouble at all with the 3, 4, 5 hitters in the D'Backs lineup.

If the Rockies lose to the Dodgers, and they are losing 6-2 in the 8'th inning, the Giants and D'Backs will be tied for 2'nd place, 1 game behind the Rockies. The Dodgers will be 2.5 games behind the leaders. The Padres outslugged the Cubs 13-7 and will be 5.5 games behind the leaders.

The Giants survived a 3 dinger inning off starter Matt Cain to break their 5 game losing streak in Arizona. Key Lines:

Marco Scutaro- 3 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .237. Scooter reached base 4 times in 5 PA's. Maybe he didn't need a day off after all?

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 3. BA= .327. Pablo is hitting .372 over his last 10 games and .412 over his last 9. He left the game early due to recurrent elbow soreness. Maybe that explains the relative lack of power in that stretch?

Brandon Belt- 2 for 4, HR(2). BA= .244. Bochy batted Belt out of the 8 hole which has been a surprisingly effective spot for Giants hitters this year. Belt is hitting .379 over his last 10 games.

Matt Cain- 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 6.49. Only one of the 4 BB's came back to bite him, but the 3 dingers in the 4'th inning continued a pattern of missing locations and hanging breaking balls that have led to a rash of dingers off the Giants ace. Cainer did get the ship righted and went 2 more shut down innings after the D'Backs outburst in the 4'th inning.

With the Win, the Giants will likely stay 2 games behind the Rockies who are way ahead of the Dodgers in LA. The D'Backs fall 1 game of the Rockies' pace while the Dodgers will likely fall 3 games back. The Padres lost to the Cubs 5-3 and fall to 6 games back in last place in the NL West.

Ryan Vogelsong got bit by the longball and the Giants offense was again not quite able to overcome the deficit. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, BB, SB(3). BA= .280. Getting on base twice in 5 PA's is what the leadoff hitter is supposed to do.

Marco Scutaro- 0 for 4, BB. BA= .215. Scutaro had a scheduled day off. At the last minute, he said he wanted to play and Bochy let him. Nick Noonan was deprived of a chance to start in front of his hometown crowd. Not sure what to think of this, but I think we all agreed as of yesterday that Scooter needed a day off. I'm not sure the player is necessarily the best judge of that.

Pablo Sandoval- 4 for 5. BA= .316. Pablo had a 4-hit game, but where is the power stroke?

Buster Posey- 1 for 4, HR(3), BB. BA= .286.

Ryan Vogelsong- 5 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 6 K. ERA= 6.23. There have been a couple of games this season that I thought Vogie pitched much better than the score would indicate due to umpire issues or BABIP issues. This was not one of those games. Vogie was missing on location and he was missing up in the strike zone. Combine that with a ballpark that has always been relatively hitter friendly in day games and now has the fenced about 10 feet closer, well, it's a combustible combination and Vogie paid the price.

With the Loss, the Giants remained 2 games behind in the NL West in 3'rd place. The D'Backs beat the Rockies 4-2 to climb into a first place tie with said Rockies. The Dodgers gained a game with a 2-0 win over the BrewCrew to 2.5 games behind the leaders while the Pesky Padres gained a game to 5.5 back in last place.

The Giants now travel to Arizona where Matt Cain takes the mound facing Ian Kennedy.

Tanaka is tearing it up on offense, but appears to be still having the defensive yips. Chris Dominguez seems to have no place to play. Huge game for Gillespie. The bullpen arms are stacking up, especially with Machi's performance at the MLB level yesterday.

Kind of a strange situation in LF with Payne and Harris. You would think Payne would be getting the OF experience here, but he seems to be playing mostly as the DH. Angel V is hitting .317/.349/.537 over his last 10 games and has a 7 game hit streak going. That's the kind of line we're hoping to see more of from Mejia.

A shocking 2-base error by Andres Torres in LF opened the door for a 6 run fourth inning for the Pesky Padres. Another error by Marco Scutaro on a potential DP ball in the bottom of the 12'th resulted in the fourth disheartening 1 run loss in a row for the defending World Series Champions. Key Lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 3 for 6, 2B. BA= .290. Pablo also made at least one amazing defensive play on a diving stop throw out at first all while holding a runner at 3B.

Buster Posey- 2 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .288. Gotta feel like the ship will get righted with Buster swinging the bat like this.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 5, 3B. BA= .260. Pence also made a nice diving catch in RF to preserve the tie in extra innings, but the Rev's BA has dropped a lot since the first 2 weeks.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 5, HR. BA= .298. Crawford jumped on a hanging curveball by Eric Stults in the 2'nd inning and pullled it into the seats down the RF line for a 3 run dinger. Where, oh where would the Giants be this season without Brandon Crawford?

Andres Torres- 0 for 5, Error. BA= .255. Not a good game for Torres in any way. I believe this is his second major hiccup in LF in the last 4 games. Love Torres, but gotta think he's skating on mighty thin ice out there right now.

Barry Zito- 3.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.29. Zito was sailing along looking like the good Zito until Torres' error followed by a bloop single with one out in the 4'th inning. Zito always walks a fine line. He couldn't get the bleeding stopped and had to be bailed out by Chad Gaudin.

With the Loss, the Giants remained fell to 3'rd place, 2 games behind the NL West leading Rockies who lost to the D'Backs 3-2. The D'Backs took sole possession of 2'nd place 1 game behind the leaders. The Dodgers lost to the BrewCrew 6-4 to remain 3.5 games back in 4'th place while the Pesky Padres tightened things up with a 6.5 game deficit in last place.

Ryan Vogelsong tries to salvage a win in the series facing Jason Marquis in the finale today.

Galindo has just 1 XBH out of 20 hits on the season. He certainly has game changing speed on the basepaths though. A SLG% of .284 is probably not going to cut it at higher levels, though. I'm trying to decide whether SJ or Augusta has the stronger pitching staff.

Tim Lincecum had a dominant start wasted by an impotent offense. Key lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, SB(2). BA= .289. Pagan scored the Giants only run in the first inning with a single, steal of 2B, advanced to 3B on a ground out and came home on a WP. Posey and Belt also had 2 hit games but those 3 players had 0 for 4's space in between them that effectively killed off any incipient rallies.

Tim Lincecum- 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 9 K's. ERA= 3.64. Timmy gave up a leadoff single to the opposing pitcher, Cashner, in the 3'rd inning then 3 consecutive 2-out singles at the back end of the inning. Aside from that small hiccup, he was vintage Timmy. Unfortunately, Cashner and the Padres bullpen made it stand up.

The Loss put the Giants in 2'nd place tie with the D'Backs 2 games behind the NL West leading Rockies who beat the D'Backs 6-3. The Dodgers topped the BrewCrew 7-5 to remain at 3.5 games behind the division leaders. The last place Pesky Padres are 7.5 games off the pace.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

What started out as a ferocious pitcher's duel between Madison Bumgarner and Ian Kennedy gave way to a bullpen contest that leaked into extra-innings with the Snakes prevailing in the 10'th inning. Key Lines:

Brandon Crawford- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(4). BA= .320. Oh my! Stay hot, Brandon! Crawford was already the #1 ranked SS in MLB by fWAR at 1.2. I'm pretty sure he tacked a few 10'ths of a point on to that today.

With the Loss, the Giants fell 1.5 games behind the NL West Division leading Rockies who beat the Braves 6-5. The D'Backs are now just 2 games behind the Rockies in 3'rd place. The Dodgers remained 3 games back after a loss to the Mets. The Padres are 8.5 games back in last place, pending the results of their late game against the BrewCrew.

The Giants now get tomorrow off the travel to San Diego to take on the Padres in Petco Park.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Giants offense awoke from a deep slumber to score 4 runs in the 8'th and 9'th innings to tie the score at 4-4, but the D'Backs came back to win it in extra innings. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .293. Pagan has made himself into a tough out. He may not walk as much as you'd like a leadoff batter to, but he sees pitches an grinds out AB's.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 2, HR(1). BA= .222. Belt almost brought the house down with a game tying 2 run dinger in the bottom of the 9'th. Alas, it ended up going for naught. Belt now is 3 for 3 since his batting practice with Bruce Bochy.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 5, 3B. BA= .296. Crawford continues to be dangerous and create runs at the bottom of the Giants lineup.

Matt Cain- 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 6.59. I know Baggs said it's not a velocity problem, but Cainer rarely breaks 91 on the gun anymore. He just can't get away with location mistakes like he could when he could pump 93-96 for 7 or 8 innings.

Despite the Loss, the Giants gained 0.5 games on the Rockies who lost both ends of a doubleheader to the Braves, leaving the Giants 0.5 games out of first place. The D'Backs are now 2 games behind the Rockies. The Dodgers topped the Mets 7-2 behind Clayton Kershaw and are now 3.5 games back of the lead. The Padres lost again putting them 8 games back in last place in the NL West.

Madison Bumgarner takes on Ian Kennedy who always seems to be tough on the Giants tomorrow afternoon.

At this point, I would say Roger K is the clear callup if an OF is needed on the big club irrespective of which side of the plate he bats. Kickham is learning from the PCL school of hard knocks for pitchers.

Adrianza continues his surprising hitting prowess. Panik has his second multi-hit game in a row. Well, well, well! Look who shows up as a pinch-hitter in AA! Shankbone is going to be bursting his buttons! Not sure what this is all about but it's inneresting.

Andres Torres- 2 for 4, SB(2). BA= .306. Torres just missed a HR or double up the left-center alley. He is hitting the ball with the same authority I remember from 2010.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 1. BA= .197. Belt took a special batting practice supervised by Bruce Bochy himself. Boch then showed faith in him by sending him out there late in a close game on the double switch and then letting him bat against the LH pitcher. Belt delivered the walkoff hit! Talk about an ending worthy of a movie!

Ryan Vogelsong- 7 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 4 K's, 2 HR. ERA= 5.68. Once again I thought Vogie pitched much better than the score indicated. For one thing, he was battling a very tough strike zone by the ump. Not saying it was an unfair strike zone, but it was very tough. I have to say that to my eye, the zone Miley got was just a hair more liberal. For Vogie to go a full 7 and keep his team in the game, was an accomplishment.

The Win upped the Giants record to 13-7, 1 game behind the Rockies who had their game snowed out in Denver. The D'Backs fell 3.5 games off the pace and 2.5 behind the Giants. The Dodgers were idle and remain 5 games behind the Rockies while the Pathetic Padres lost to the BrewCrew 7-1 to fall 8.5 games off the pace.

The good Barry Zito showed up today and held the Pathetic Padres scoreless through 7 with Chad Gaudin finishing them off over the last 2 innings. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .301. Pagan led off the game with something like a 9 pitch AB. Later he drove in the first Giants runs with 2 run double and then scored on Sandoval's single. That first AB set the tone though as Posey led off the 2'nd inning with a 12 pitch AB and the Giants hitters were the Pesky ones today.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4. BA= .290. Pablo was swinging at everything but made enough contact to get 2 base hits out of it. Nose to toes, baby!

With the Win, the Giants move up to 1.5 games behind the first place Rockies in the NL West. The Rocks lost to the D'Backs 5-4. The D'Backs remained 1.5 games behind the Giants in 3'rd place. The Dodgers topped the Orioles to gain a game to 5 behind the Rockies and 3.5 behind the Giants. The Pathetic Padres remained mired in last place 8 games behind the leaders.

Ryan Vogelsong takes the mound against Wade Miley in the first of a 3 game set with the D'Backs tomorrow evening.

Angel V hit the ball on the nose twice: A lineout to LF and a hard grounder throught the hole on the left side. He appears to have much better command of the strike zone than when I saw him 3 years ago in High Desert. Looks like the Ryan Cavan to 3B experiment is done. I really like what I saw of Myles Schroder at 3B both Thursday night and tonight. Nice size, athleticism in the field. Switch-hitter with a good approach and swing.

Chris Marlowe appeared to have excellent command. I would say he was pitching to contact more than recent boxscores would indicate. He was a groundball inducing machine tonight. The stadium gun was not working again tonight. I would estimate Marlowe was working in the low 90's with the fastball.

Bryce Bandilla is a big boy. He threw noticeably harder than Marlowe. He did give up 3 very long flyballs, 2 of which were called foul(1 of the fouls might have been a HR. It was a disputed call and I thought it could have been called either way without instant replay.

The Giants mustered just 3 hits off Padres' pitching, but one of them was a 2 run homer by Pablo Sandoval that was the difference in the game. A stellar pitching performance by Tim Lincecum and the bullpen made it stand up. Key Lines:

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 3, HR(3). BA= .277. Pablo has been kind of quiet lately. This dinger came at a perfect time.

Tim Lincecum- 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 3.97. That is the best line Timmy has put up in recent memory. Let's hope this turns a corner for him.

The Win increased the Giants record to 11-7 and kept them 2.5 games behind the NL West leading Colorado Rockies who topped the D'Backs again 4-3. The Loss dropped the D'Backs 4 games behind the division lead. The Orioles swept a twinbill from the Dodgers dropping da bums 6 games off the pace while the Pathetic Padres dropped to 8 games behind in last place.

I liked what I saw of Schroder in the first game of the series. He's got nice size, athletic looking, switch hits, nice approach at the plate. I wasn't able to make it to the game last night. I would like to see Blach in person. The line is typical of a soft-tossing LHP.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Seems like the Padres always play the Giants tight. Tonight was no exception as the Giants needed a walkoff hit by Angel Pagan to squeak out a 3-2 win. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .318. Pagan scored the Giants first run on a Sac Fly by Posey then drove in the winning run with a double to the RF wall. I'm not so sure it's a good thing to be the hero of a walk-off win because you get pummeled so hard by your teammates!

Buster Posey- 1 for 2, 2B, BB, SF. BA= .224. This is the type of game that might get Buster's bat going, which would be a huge boon to the Giants offense.

Hunter Pence- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .265. Pence drove in Buster Posey all the way from 1B on a double down the LF line.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 4. BA= .193. Belt's first hit was a hard one hopper that skipped past a diving Everth Cabrera. The second was a blooper down the LF line.

Gregor Blanco- 3 for 4. BA= .292. Even though it does not show up in the boxscore, Blanco should be credited with scoring the winning run. He led off the 9'th with a single. Was forced at 2B on a Sac. bunt attempt by Torres. Torres then picked himself up by stealing 2B setting up Pagan's winning hit.

George Kontos- 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 6.10. The ERA is not pretty, but Kontos got some big outs as he has done in several other Giants wins this year.

Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.93. Casilla was lights out in this one. He got credit for the W, his 2'nd of the young season and 3'rd decision. That is as many decisions as most of the starters!

With the Win, the Giants kept pace with the NL West leading Rockies who stayed 2.5 games ahead by beating the D'Backs 3-1. The D'Backs fell to 3'rd place 0.5 games behind the Giants. The Dodgers game in Baltimore was postponed by rain leaving the Bad Guys 4.5 games behind the division leading Rockies while the Pathetic Padres dropped to 7 games off the pace.

Crick left the game after two innings with a strained oblique. I did not see any indication of injury while he was on the mound. He did not come out for the 3'rd inning. To my eye, Crick has a very hard two seam fastball that sometimes has so much armside run he has trouble controlling it. On most of the pitches called balls, he wasn't missing by a lot. He has a nice hard curveball to go with it.

Austin Fleet had great command of a FB that looked like it might be sitting right around 90 MPH and a very sharp breaking ball that completely dominated the 66'er hitters.

I did not stay long enough to get a scouting report on Osich.

Angel Villalona looked terrific at the plate. He was first pitch swinging on the double and lined a laser beam directly over the head of the LF off the base of the LF wall. The single was on a 2-2 count and was a sharp groundball through the hole on the left side of the IF. Angel V appears to have lost some weight and is in decent shape. He is definitely not thin, though. I would describe his running style as lumbering on the basepaths. The bat though...the bat has the potential to be special!

Mac Williamson is tall and surprisingly a bit on the lanky side for a guy who is listed as weighing 240 lbs. It looks to me like he may run into some of the same problems was Brandon Belt and other tall hitters getting tied up on pitches on the inside corner.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

The Brewers pounded Matt Cain to build a 7-0 lead after 3 innings. Even though Cain and the bullpen held the BrewCrew scoreless the rest of the way, the offense was too little, too late. Key Lines:

Gregor Blanco- 2 for 4, SB(2). BA= .250 With Scutaro sitting, Blanco hit in the 2 hole and did well.

Brandon Crawford- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(3). BA= .352. Crawford moved up to #5 in the order and hit like a number 5 hitter.

Matt Cain- 6 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 7.15. As Cain has cut down on his BB's, he seems to be more hittable. Cain has always been able to suppress HR's and all of a sudden he's giving them up in bunches. My impression is that as he has used his breaking pitches more, he is also hanging more of them and those are the pitches that are getting clobbered.

The Loss drops the Giants season record to 9-7, 2.5 games behind the Rockies in third place in the NL West. The Rockies topped the Mets 11-3 to go to 11-4 and a 2 game lead over second place Arizona. The D'Backs beat the Yankees 6-2. The Dodgers were idle and fell to 4 games behind the Rockies. The Padres were also idle. They are 6 games back in last place but coming off a sweep of the Dodgers(had to mention that).

The Giants now return to AT&T Park to face the Pesky Padres with Madison Bumgarner facing Edinson Volquez in the opener of the series.

Adrianza continues to be surprisingly effective at the plate. Taillon is an elite pitching prospect in the Pirates organization. If you haven't seen him blow away Joe Mauer in the WBC, I highly recommend looking up the video.

Santiago Casilla- 1.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 2.25. Bochy must have thought his bullpen needed rest because Casilla seemed shaky from the get-go. He went to a 2-0 count on almost every batter. Way more leash than he deserved from his performance and level of command.

With the Loss, the Giants drop 1.5 games behind the Colorado Rockies who were idled by snow in Denver today. The D'Backs lost to the Yankees and are 2 games behind the Rockies in 3'rd place. The Dodgers are sitting at 3 games behind the leaders and trailing the Pesky Padres 3-1 with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. The Padres are 6 games behind pending the outcome of their game against the Dodgers.

Matt Cain tries to salvage a win in the series facing Yovani Gallardo who is coming off a DUI in which is blood alcohol level was reportedly 2.2. Yikes! Now watch him pitch a perfect game.

The Giants offense put up a spirited effort, but it was not enough to overcome the 9 run mess Barry Zito left in the bed. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .340. Pagan is doing his job at the top of the lineup.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 3, 2B, BB, SF. BA= .320. Sandoval is playing like Sandoval. I'm still looking for huge season from him.

Brandon Belt- 3 for 4, SF, SB(2). BA= .191. Maybe this game will get Belt going.

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4, HR(2). BA= .304. Nice article in Fangraphs today about Crawford and how his improved hitting is probably for real. I said the same thing in response to an article by Howard Bender during the offseason and got flamed for it. Crawford keeps this kind of hitting up, and I think it is entirely possible, combined with his defense and we could be looking at a MVP caliber season.

Barry Zito- 2.2 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 2 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 4.86. Zito runs hot and cold. Not sure which is which, but we'll say he was cold today. It kind of started out as a BABIPing in the 3'rd inning, but as it progressed, he turned into a batting practice pitcher. I tend to believe Bochy left him in 1 or 2 batters too long. There is plenty of history of when things start to go south on Zito, they go in a hurry. Not that he was fooling anyone, but Gomez' HR hit the foul pole and Weeks' 2-run double hit the chalk on the LF foul line in addition the the BABIP whims I referred to earlier.

The Loss left the Giants 0.5 games behind the Rockies who defeated the Mets in the first game of a twin bill. They are tied 8-8 in extra innings on game 2, so that outcome will leave the Rockies a full game ahead or tied with the Giants. The D'Backs lost to the Yankees 4-2 to remain 0.5 games behind the Giants. The Dodgers trail the Padres 8-1 in their game, so will likely remain 1.5 games behind the Giants while the Padres would improve to 5 games behind in last place.

Gotta feel sorry for pitchers trying to make an impression in the PCL. Places like Tucson, Albuquerque, Colorado Springs are almost unfair to try to pitch in, which makes Dunning's performance all the more impressive here.

Monday, April 15, 2013

We haven't done a Q/A for awhile. Since the Giants are off today, we'll do one. All reasonable baseball related questions answered to the best of my ability, Giants, prospects, draft, fantasy. Hope everyone will chip in with their thoughts and make it a discussion too.

Quite the slugfest here with Juan Perez muscling up for 2 dingers and Carter Jurica continuing his hot hitting. I guess we should remember that Jurica was a 3'rd round draft pick once upon a time and hit very well in college ball.

Adrianza's hitting has been a pleasant surprise so far. Ricky's bat seems to be slowly warming up. He has a 4 games hit streak, but also had 8 K's in those 4 games. I like seeing Valdez go more than 1 inning at a time.

The Giants won a see-saw battle in a game that left pitchers on both teams visibly frustrated by the umpire's miniscule strike zone. Key Lines:

Hunter Pence- 3 for 4, HR(4), BB, SB(3). BA= .288. Apparently The Reverend is becoming known among Giants fans by a much less dignified nickname, Under Pants. There were orange undies glued upside down to the tops of caps in the stands today, much to the delight of Kruk and Kuip. Pence is on a pace to hit 48 HR's and 36 SB's on the season. Hey, he's playing for a contract!

Gregor Blanco- 2 for 5, 2 2B. BA= .281. Blanco had two very key hits and made some sparkling plays in the OF.

Hector Sanchez- 2 for 5. BA= .214. Sanchez started the winning rally with a 1 out single in the 10'th.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 3, BB, HBP. BA= .286. Crawford was, once again, a tough out in the 8-hole and had several sparkling plays in the field including a sliding catch down the LF line that had to be seen to be believed.

Nick Noonan- 1 for 1. BA= .500. Noonan rapped a 2 run single in the top of the 6'th inning to help get the Giants back into this one. Even giving them a temporary 5-4 lead.

Tim Lincecum- 5 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 5.63. I knew it might be a tough day for Timmy when I heard Kruk discussing this umps K-zone in the top of the first. When Timmy gave up 2 dingers and 4 runs to the first 5 batters of the game, I was about this close to thinking this game might be better off with less of my involvement in it. I'll give credit to Timmy for hanging on and getting through 4 more innings while limiting the damage.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(7). ERA= 2.35. Romo certainly wasn't fooling anyone. It did not look good after he gave up a leadoff double to Soriano. Fortunately he had a 3 run lead to work with and the next two balls were smoked but right at fielders including the second one right back at Romo. This outing was a perfect example of why Saves are probably a grossly overrated statistic.

Bottom of the order watch: The 6-9 spots in the order, including PH, went 7 for 19 with 3 BB's and 1 HBP.

The Win improves the Giants record to 9-4. They win a 4 game series in Chicago for the first time since 1998 or something like that. The D'Backs defeated the Dodgers 1-0 to remain 0.5 games behind the NL West leading Giants. The Rockies edged San Diego 2-1 and are also 0.5 games back. The Dodgers dropped 1 game off the pace with their loss while the Pathetic Padres fall 6.5 games off the pace in last place at 2-10.

The Giants have tomorrow off before starting a 3 game series in Milwaukee, where Buster Posey's bat has come alive in the past. Barry Zito gets game 1 Tuesday night facing Wily Peralta.

A leadoff hitter putting up lines like Payne's is going to score runs. Blach was a single digit draft pick who did not play in the pros last season. Bandilla now has a ridiculous 17 K's in 7 IP. Barbosa was drafted 3 times by the Giants before finally signing with the D'Backs. The White Whale that got away.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Jose Reyes is a terrific fantasy baseball asset when he is healthy, but the man is made of glass. Yesterday, Reyes severely sprained his ankle in a slide into 2B and will likely miss 3 months. I thought he was a big risk moving to a home stadium that still uses artificial turf, although this injury does not seem to be related to the surface. The guy who owns him in my fantasy league paid a handsome price in our auction draft, somewhere in the mid-$30's. I got Ian Desmond for right at $20. I liked my deal at the time and it's looking a lot better now.

One interesting question is who might be available on the FA market in a fantasy league to fill in for Reyes over the next 3 months. Here is a list of shortstops available in my league(10 team league):

Andrelton Simmons(Braves)- 7 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 1 SB, .206 BA. Likely to improve his BA and SB numbers. Could score close to 100 runs over the course of the season if he continues to lead off for the Braves.

Zack Cozart(Reds)- 4 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SB, .114 BA. Cozart will give you some HR's but little else as he hits down in the Reds lineup and hits for a poor BA.

Jean Segura(Brewers)- 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB, .429 BA. Segura has not stolen bases as expected so far, but has done everything else. He is hitting second in the BrewCrew lineup some too.

Stephan Drew(Red Sox)- 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB, .167 BA. Could be a nice pickup if you believe he is healthy and still has something in the tank.

Brandon Crawford(Giants)- 5 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SB, .286 BA. Well, well, look what we have here! Crawford may be the second best bet of all these choices. Only drawback is he'll mostly be hitting 8'th, but the bottom of the Giants lineup has become quite productive. Even the pitchers give the #8 hitter some semblance of protection.

Marwin Gonzalez(Astros)- 5 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB, .364 BA. I don't know how likely he is to sustain this kind of hitting. He definitely won't be hitting .364 on the season. Might be worth a flyer to see how long he stays hot, though.

If I needed to pick up a SS in my fantasy league, I think I would go with Segura with Brandon Crawford as my second choice, Simmons third.

The Giants eked out a narrow win over the Cubbies on another frigid day in Chicago. The key to the game, which doesn't show up in a stat line is the Cubs had runners at 2'nd and 3'rd two times, first with no outs and then with 1 out and came away with nothing to show for it. Key Lines:

Gregor Blanco- 2 for 5. BA= .259. Blanco also has a .394 OBP. He moved over to CF when Angel Pagan came u with a sore wrist after hitting the wall yesterday. Pagan entered the game later as a PH and played CF, so it must have been more of a precaution.

Marco Scutaro- 3 for 4. BA= .286. After a slow start, Scutaro is back to being a hit machine.

Andres Torres- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .269. After seeing how much authority he is hitting the ball with in some AB's from the left side, I'm not so sure Torres shouldn't be the every day LF and let Blanco come off the bench. Torres is stroking it from gap-to-gap. On the other hand, he struck out 3 times in this game too.

Madison Bumgarner- 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 1.77. Bochy might have left Bumgarner in 1 batter too long, but I can see how he wouldn't be too afraid of Navarro batting from the right side after he hit a dinger from the left side yesterday.

Santiago Casilla- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's, Save(1). ERA= 1.50. Casilla came in and slammed the door for 2 innings, saving the game and giving the rest of the bullpen some rest in the process.

The Win improves the Giants record to 8-4.

Tim Lincecum tries for the 3'rd win in a 4 game series tomorrow facing Edwin Jackson.

One of the uglier aspects of baseball, a sport that is comparatively safe in terms of contact and injury, is the fact that almost every pitcher in the game holds a potentially lethal weapon in his hand and the potential to "accidently" use it on every play. I say almost every pitcher because it is hard to imagine Barry Zito so much as hurting anyone with anything he throws, but 95% of pitchers in baseball throw harder than Barry Zito.

It is a fact of life that to be a successful major league pitcher, you have to be willing to occasionally remind certain hitters that you do have that lethal weapon and would be willing to use it if they don't respect it. It is a standard part of baseball pitching strategy to occasionally throw some "chin music" AKA brushback pitch up there. I mean, they didn't nickname Sal Maglie "The Barber" for nothing.

I remember attending the infamous Giants-Dodgers game where Steve Finley hit the walk-off grand slam. The irony of that game is it might have been the best game Brett Tomko pitched as a Giant, maybe in his career. Late in that game, Adrian Beltre was leaning over the plate a little too much and Tomko threw a pitch up and in that sent Beltre bailing out so hard he was flat on the ground. Next pitch was a slider down and away that Beltre had no chance on. Huge strikeout. A Dodger fan sitting next to me murmured that it was great pitching. He understood the science of the game and knew it was part of good pitching strategy.

Carlos Quentin is a very good major league hitter, at least when he is healthy, at least in part because he has taught himself to be not afraid of the lethal weapon in the pitcher's hands. Quentin went to college at Stanford. Stanford is well known to teach it's hitters how to get hit by pitches in order to 1. Get on base and 2. Force pitchers to throw pitches in locations more favorable to the hitters. Quentin has carried that ethic over into his MLB career. There was even a SI or BA article about it a few years ago, can't remember which one, but I remember the article.

I have no problem with what Quentin is doing up at the plate. It's within the rules of the game and if he's willing to take the punishment in return for the gain, he certainly has a right to. Kudos to him for finding a way to win. I do have a problem with him doing that and then charging the mound when he gets hit. Come on dude! If you are up there trying to get yourself hit, just go down to first base since that's what you wanted in the first place!

There has been a lot of discussion about whether Greinke hit Quentin on purpose. After watching the video, I have to say I am not sure, but that pitch sure went straight for his shoulder. It was not a situation where a pitcher would typically try to hit a batter, even in retaliation for something. 3-2 pitch, close game, later in the game. On the other hand, the way Quentin stands on top of the plate, and with the weakness of he Padre lineup around him, Greinke may well have decided he was not going to give in and throw a strike there and if he was going to walk him anyway, he'd send a message at the same time.

Greinke did use poor judgement in the way he defended himself. He was smart to not try to use his right hand for a fist or let Quentin body slam him, thus endangering his right arm, but a running body check with his left shoulder also was probably not a wise move. I have to say I'm not sure what a good defensive response might have been, but obviously not that one, but that is hindsight.

Baseball is getting perilously close to a situation like in hockey where you can send a goon out to injure the opposing team's star player and the asymmetry of the relative abilities and punishments makes it profitable for the instigating team. We've already seen that with Scott Cousins and Buster Posey. Quentin's 8 game suspension in no way equals what the Dodgers lose in Greinke being out 8 weeks. I'm not sure I'm in favor of a strick eye for an eye type of justice where the attacking players sits as long as the injured player is out, but MLB definitely needs to look at longer harsher penalties for actions that lead to injuries to opposing players.

One more thought: I believe there is a rule in MLB that a hitter has to try to get out of the way of an inside pitch in order to be awarded first base. The most famous enforcement of this rule occured a long time ago when a Giants hitter, I think maybe Dick Dietz was not awarded first base thus preserving Don Drysdale's streak of scoreless IP. I would like to see that rule enforced more often for hitters like Quentin. I'm sorry, but turning your front shoulder inward is not trying to get out of the way. In fact, it's trying to get hit! Enforcing that rule would put a stop to hitters standing over home plate and not moving, thus putting pitchers in positions where they might feel they have nothing to lose by hitting the batter.

While I'm at it, I would also like to see the rule changed so that player cannot get first base if their baggy uniform that flies out 6-8 inches away from their body gets hit but they don't. That is a ridiculous rule and needs to be changed.

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Giants staged to 3 run rally in the top of the 9'th inning to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, except that they gave it all back in the bottom of the inning converting Kyuji Fujikawa's Blown Save into a Win. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4. BA= .341. There were two balls in the 9'th that Pagan might have been able to catch. I'll give him a pass on the last one that hit the wall in right-center. The only way he could have had that was to make a running leaping catch at full speed and crash into the bricks. Better to live to fight another day. The other was an attempt on a sliding catch of a short liner off the bat of David DeJesus. Tough catch, but the ball was there. Pagan just misjudged where it was and didn't get his glove in the right spot. Still, Pagan is fielding at a +UZR in a tiny sample size so far this season, so we'll won't criticize too much here. He'll make more plays than he fails to make.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .167. Belt drove in the putative tying and winning runs in the top of the 9'th, onlhy to have to go for naught with Romo's Blown Save.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, BB. BA= .286. Crawford also has a .390 OBP. He's become a tough, tough out.

Matt Cain- 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 6 K. ERA= 5.94. Cain threw a lot of pitches in the first two innings, but hung in there and ended up with a QS and gave his team a chance to win.

The Loss drops the Giants record to 7-4 and 0.5 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks. The D'Backs blanked the Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw 3-0 behind Patrick Corbin and their bullpen. The Loss drops the Dodgers into a tie for 3'rd place with the Rockies at 1 game back. The Rockies topped the Pathetic Padres 7-5 and dropped them 4.5 games back in last place with a record of 2-8.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The Giants offense continued in high gear to overcame a subpar day from the pitching staff. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 4, SF. BA= .350. The bottom of the order got on base and the top of the order drove them in.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 2, 2 BB, HBP. BA= .273. Crawford showed he could handle the 2-hole as he reached base 4 times out of 5 PA's. he drove in a run, but had no runs scored to show for it.

Pablo Sandoval- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .333. Sandoval had the only XBH of the game for the Giants.

Nick Noonan- 3 for 5. BA= .455. Noonan has never stopped hitting since being called back from minor league camp.

Ryan Vogelsong- 0 for 1, BB, Sac. BA= .000. Another Giants pitcher shows he can handle a bat and help himself win. The 6-9 spots in the order went a combined 5 for 16 with 2 BB, scored 5 of the 7 runs and drove in 1.

The Win improved the Giants record to 7-3 and gained them a 0.5 game lead on the idle D'Backs. The Dodgers can move into a second place tie with a win over the Padres tonight. The idle Rockies fell to 1.5 games out and the Padres will be either 3.5 games behind or 4.5 depending on the outcome of their night game against the Dodgers.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Giants unleashed a ferocious offensive attack on Jeff Francis the Rockies' pitching staff, while Barry Zito's renaissance continued to gain momentum. The result was a dominant win to sweep the 3 game series. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .361. Pagan continues his hot start.

Marco Scutaro- 2 for 3, 2B, SF. BA= .235. Scooter is 6 for his last 11 and has raised his BA from .111 to .235 over the last 3 games.

Buster Posey- 3 for 5, 2B, 3B. BA= .276. I would say Buster has busted out of his slump too.

Brandon Belt- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .148. After Belt took an 0 for 5 last night, I suspected he might sit against the LHP, but Bochy stuck with him and he had a good day at the plate. Gotta be a confidence booster there.

Andres Torres- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .286. Last night and today, Torres looked like the Torres of 2010 when for the middle 4 months of the season, he might have been the best player in baseball.

Brandon Crawford- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .258. Crawford has become a force out of the 8 hole.

Barry Zito- 2 for 3, Sac. BA= .750. Zito has turned himself into a tough out. Whether it is fouling off pitches and running up pitch counts or a well executed sacrifice bunt or slapping the ball to LF, he has really figured something out at the plate and his helping himself win.

All in all, the last 4 batters in the lineup went a combined 9 for 18 with 3 doubles, 5 Runs and 4 RBI's. I'm tellin' ya, the bottom of the lineup has become a major weapon for the Giants.

Barry Zito- 7 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 0.00. Ironically, when Barry Zito signed his contract, I think most of us thought it would be OK on the front end but terrible by the end. It's turning out to be exactly opposite of that. Gotta think having a missus to go home every day has had a major positive effect on Zito's concentration and focus.

The Win improves the Giants record to 6-3 tied with the D'Backs for first place in the NL West. The D'Backs pounded the Pirates 10-2. The Dodgers are leading the Padres 4-1. A win would leave them 0.5 games behind in 3'rd place. A loss would drop them 1.5 games behind, 0.5 games behind the Rockies in 4'th place.

The Giants now fly to Chicago for an afternoon game tomorrow. Ryan Vogelsong faces Scott Feldman.

I guess the 8 hits allowed is a clue that these numbers may not translate to the majors for Petit. He's just too hittable. Kind of a so-so start for Wheeler. You'd like to see more dominance at this level before you bring him up to the MLB level.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Brandon Crawford hit a 3 run homer in the 6'th inning to spark a come-from-behind win for the Giants over the Rockies at AT&T Park. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 3 for 5. BA= .364. Pagan is starting this season where he left off last year, smoking hot.

Marco Scutaro- 3 for 4, Sac. BA= .194. The BA shows just how much Scutaro was scuffling coming into this one.

Hunter Pence- 2 for 5. BA= .300. The Rev stays hot. He lost another hit when his line drive went right into the glove of the 2B.

Gregor Blanco- 1 for 3, 2 BB. BA= .231. Blanco's OBP stands at .412.

Brandon Crawford- 1 for 3, HR(1), BB. BA= .231. This Brandon was the hero tonight. His 3 run dinger was the game changer bringing the Giants back from a 6-2 deficit to 6-5. The rest was easy.

Andres Torres- 1 for 1, 2B. BA= .188. Torres' double over the head of Cuddyer in RF reminded me of the way he swung the bat for much of 2010.

Tim Lincecum- 6 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 4.91. Timmy had a terrible 2'nd inning but hung in there and got through 6 innings. 3 of his walks came in the 2'nd inning including the opposing pitcher. Had he gotten Nicasio there, he would have been out of the inning with just 1 run allowed. So, we'll see. I'm not quite ready to give up on Timmy having a good season quite yet.

The Win brought the Giants season record to 5-3 and into a first place tie with the Rockies and D'Backs who lost to et Pirates 6-5. The Dodgers lost to the Pesky Padres 9-3 to fall 0.5 games off the pace while the Padres tightened up the division bringing their last place standing to just 2.5 games behind.

Sergio Romo- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's, Save(4). ERA= 0.00. A bit of a scare when Rutledge hit a leadoff double that was nearly a HR. I was never too worried because of the insurance run the Giants got in the bottom of the 8'th.

The Win upped the Giants record to 4-3. The D'Backs lost to the Pirates so the Giants are now 1 game behind the NL West leading Rockies and D'Backs in 4'th place. The idle Dodgers are in 3'rd place 0.5 games behind the leaders. The Padres were idle and are now 3.5 games behind in last place.

Did you know there is a reference to baseball in the Bible? In the big inning..... The Giants were on the wrong end of a big inning today as the Cardinals scored 9 runs in the 4'th and went on to a runaway victory on Ring Day for the Giants. Key Lines:

Angel Pagan- 2 for 4, 2B, 3B. BA= .333. Pagan led off the Giants half of the first inning with a triple up the left-CF alley. He added a 2B in his next AB.

Pablo Sandoval- 2 for 4. BA= .318.

Matt Cain- 3.2 IP, 7 H, 9 R, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 8.38. Cain was perfect through 3 and then the roof caved in. Can't really say he was BABIP'd because most of the hits were liners that were squared up pretty good. Not sure how you can look so good for 3 innings and suddenly completely lose it, though.

Chad Gaudin- 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 0.00. Gaudin's job was to preserve the bullpen in a lost cause of a game. He did that admirably.

With the Loss, the Giants fell into 4'th place, 2 games off the pace set by the D'Backs and Rockies. The Dodgers beat the Pirates 6-2 and are now in sole possesssion of second place, 1 game behind the leaders. The Pathetic Padres lost again to the Rockies and are now 1-5, 4 games behind in last place.

The Rockies now come to SF with Jorge De La Rosa facing Madison Bumgarner in game 1 tomorrow evening.

With 1 day to go in the first week's head-to-head matchup, my Savvy Vets fantasy baseball team is leading 7 categories to 1 with 2 categories tied. Friday marked the completion of the first trade in our fantasy league with Savvy Vets trading away closers Carlos Marmol, Glen Perkins and Kyuji Fujikawa for RHP Alexi Ogando.

The rationale for the trade is that those closers were not enough to be competitive in most head-to-head matchups. Instead of working all season and using up half my 40 allotted moves to maybe build a competitive bullpen, why not fill those RP slots with pitchers who can help in other categories and try to dominate W's and K's while hopefully remaining competitive in ERA and WHIP.

Ogando helps accomplish that goal was he is a SP with RP eligibility. He turned in a sensational start before the trace was complete. In 2011 as a starter, he had a very low WHIP which fits right in with my general strategy.

In accompanying moves, Savvy Vets added Shelby Miller, yesterday's starting pitcher for the Cardinals, who also has RP eligibility, from the waiver wire along with Andrew Cashner of the Padres. Cashner is pitching out of the bullpen as he recovers from spring training thumb injury. Bud Black has announced that he plans to move him into the rotation in the near future after he builds his arm strength back.

My strategy for building fantasy pitching staffs is to look for big, young, hard-throwing pitchers with big upside. With Ogando, Miller and Cashner, I think I found 3 who fit that profile.

About Me

I grew up in Northern California near the Napa Valley. I got interested in baseball and the Giants by listening to Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons broadcast Giants games on KSFO. My early heros were Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and a guy you don't always think of, Jim Ray Hart. When I got older and was in school and early career, I didn't have time to follow as closely, but I tried to look up their boxscores each day and catch an occasional game on TV. One habit I got into at an early age was looking up the stats of their minor league players in The Sporting News. That became more difficult as TSN moved away from comprehensive baseball coverage. Now, of course, technology and affluence has changed all that. The internet is teaming with farm system/minor league information as well as college and high school baseball. Satellite TV enables me to get most of the Giants games on TV. I'm married with 2 wonderful daughters, who like to watch games with me.